Backstage

When it was introduced last year, Apple’s enhanced digital album format iTunes LP was touted as a marquee feature of iTunes 9, but it enjoyed little apparent support from the music industry, and had no compatibility with Apple’s portable devices. It was obvious that the idea of unifying liner notes, music, video, and possibly interactive content behind a DVD-like menu interface was a good one, lacking only for support from good artists, record companies, and Apple itself. Despite less than enthusiastic participation from the recording industry, the content side of the equation has slowly started to come into its own thanks to more appealing releases from additional artists, and now the only question is how long Apple will take to add proper iTunes LP support to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch—or whether it will do so at all.

Because of its generally superior pricing, we buy far more music from Amazon.com’s MP3 store than from iTunes, and have found real benefits to actively shopping around before making digital music purchases. iTunes almost never offers a price advantage, so iTunes LP is Apple’s potential differentiator; a way for its versions of albums to transcend the bare song and digital booklet downloads it has been offering for years, adding content that might for some users actually justify Apple’s higher prices. For instance, Amazon’s version of the just-released Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul presently sells for $6, while the iTunes version goes for $8—with fewer tracks (!)—and the iTunes LP Deluxe Edition sells for $12, with one added mix and some multimedia content. In this case, there are at least two different reasons to prefer the Amazon version, but some really hard-core fans of the artists or collaborator David Lynch might like the extra iTunes LP wrapper enough to pay twice the Amazon price, anyway. Generally, we found that early iTunes LP releases such as Peter Gabriel’s So+ were neither particularly appealing nor worthy of the premium.

iTunes LP’s real potential is illustrated by compilation albums such as “Time Flies,” a recent two-disc set from the now defunct British band Oasis. Released by Sony, the basic 27-track album is offered by Apple for $11, and by Amazon for $12 with the same content. Compared with $1.29/track individual song prices, either version is priced aggressively enough (41-44 cents per track) to get people interested. But only Apple offers a premium $20 version with 47 tracks, 40 music videos, and the iTunes LP digital wrapper—so much additional content that the premium price for once seems totally justified, offering bundled 23-cent pricing across audio and video files.

The twenty additional audio tracks are “iTunes Festival” performances from the band, including live versions of songs from the standard album, covers such as The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus, and more. Each of the album’s core 27 songs plays with a laid-out version of its lyrics separate from the included digital booklet, which is a flip-through fan tribute to the band. Videos range from U.S. and international versions of major hits to live performances from the iTunes Live London Festival and other concerts. Those looking for a traditional album experience can hit a single button to play sequentially all the way through the music, while interactive menus provide clickable screens to access individual tracks or videos in whatever order the user may prefer. This is as close to a realization of iTunes LP’s promise as we’ve seen since it was introduced, albeit without the somewhat gimmicky visualizer content that some early LP releases contained.

Note, however, the word “clickable” rather than “tappable.” Even though the menus of this and other iTunes LP releases are clearly touchscreen-friendly, Time Flies doesn’t transfer its special interface to iOS devices such as the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch—the menu system works only on iTunes 9-equipped computers and Apple TVs. The same is true with other iTunes LP releases, as well. Copying the Oasis album to the iPad leads to 87 music and video files all falling into the iPod application where they’re individually selectable, though not marked as video or audio content when grouped as an album; the iPad’s Videos application also holds the music videos if you prefer to access them there. Unfortunately, the 88th file—the digital booklet and menu system—refuses to sync to the iPad at all, even into iBooks, which is capable of displaying the PDF-format digital booklets that were released with full album downloads in the past. The only Apple device the iTunes LP digital wrapper will play on besides a computer is the Apple TV.

Despite the increasing appeal of the iTunes LP format, it’s quite possible that these deluxe albums will never come to Apple’s pocket devices. Reduced to a 3.5” screen, the interface buttons and text may just be too small, and even the 9.7” screen of the iPad falls short of the 1280 x 720-pixel resolution Apple specifies for the iTunes LP menu system. Downscaling of these menus is an option on the iPad, and probably easy enough to accomplish, but on the iPhone and iPod touch—particularly the 480x320 pre-Retina Display versions—it seems unlikely to happen. Too much detail would be lost, and in some cases, thin text might even become unreadable.

Have you downloaded any iTunes LP content that was worth or not worth the premium? Do you care if iTunes LP comes to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch? Share your tips and thoughts in the comments section below.

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Comments

1

Bought Gorillaz - Plastic Beach iTunes LP and its awesome. Just wish I could watch it on my iPad…

Posted by James Bull on July 20, 2010 at 2:58 PM (CDT)

2

I think I’ve only made one iTunes LP purchase. It was bundled with a music video that I was able to put on my iPod. Other than that, I haven’t looked at the LP content. I like the idea of it, but the reality is that I do very little music listening while sitting in front of my computer. My computer’s primary function these days is to fill my iPod. I remember playing a new album and finding a comfortable place to lounge while pouring over the lyrics and liner notes. That’s something that’s almost entirely lost now that music has gone digital, and while iTunes LP /could/ address that, it fails for me simply because I don’t “lounge” in my desk chair in front of the computer. For that reason, I think the LP stuff really should transfer to the mobile devices: the iPad for sure, but I’d like to see it on my iPod as well. Then it really could give a competitive edge to the iTunes store. Right now the biggest reason I would buy from the iTunes store is because I’m not at my computer, but iTunes content can be bought from and added to my iPod Touch. If I’m already at my computer, there’s no reason to prefer iTunes LP content because it’s going to cease to exist as soon as I sync the music back to my iPod.

Posted by Rob E. on July 20, 2010 at 4:14 PM (CDT)

3

Goofy! Why would anyone want to pay extra for this? Apple has a steady stream of good ideas but this is not one of them.

Posted by davesmall on July 20, 2010 at 8:15 PM (CDT)

4

Same problems exist with the format as always have: it’s not lossless.

You want to reach the album crowd, start offering iTunes LP with both ALAC and 256 AAC (akin to what they do with movies) AND get support in place for all iOS devices.

If you can let me buy and download over 5GB of video for $18, surely they can bring themselves to sell 700MB of audio for $10-$12.

Do that, and unless the physical copy is cheaper (which, ironically, it likely would be in 80% of new release cases), Apple has my business. Otherwise, I’ll keep on buying those archaic CDs.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on July 20, 2010 at 10:07 PM (CDT)

5

I’m with Code Monkey on this one. No lossless? No sale!

Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on July 20, 2010 at 10:53 PM (CDT)

6

I bought MIKA’s second album, “The Boy Who Knew Too Much,” which was one of the first iTunes LPs offered.

I was very disappointed in the wrapper; the included videos (full-length documentaries especially) were boxed within a frame that made it rather unwatchable (a very reduced screen resolution).

I ended up “unwrapping” the entire iTunes LP package—music videos went under Music Videos, the documentaries went under Movies, and the album itself (with the bonus tracks) went under Music and a new playlist. Both videos and documentaries took advantage of the full-screen of my MacBook Pro, whereas inside the iTunes LP wrapper it was rather limited to whatever box the movie played in.

The rest of the wrapper I basically put in a “Garage” folder (you know—things you put in the garage, not quite ready to throw it away, in case you need it for a rainy day). The iTunes LP was worth the extra $2 in price just for the music videos and documentaries, but as far as replicating the experience of a CD booklet, or, even better, a full 12-inch gatefold album, Apple’s experiment was a failure.

You might also want to mention what Apple was charging the record labels to “create” an iTunes LP. If I remember correctly, it was something close to $30,000. Reason enough not to pursue this limited format.